Watching The Lobster the other night, my father in law had to leave the room.

Half of the people that I know who saw The Lobster thought it was funny and thought provoking. The other half were actively angry about having been “fooled” into watching it, they hated it so much. I’m always fascinated by movies that inspire such strong polarized opinions.

A greedy, fake plastic decade indelibly streaked with teal and pink, its tawdry Spandex flailing in the wind like a flag desperate for nostalgic allegiance from those who either weren’t paying attention at the time or were born much later only to repeat the same mistake.

Also:

Rainbow Brite

Ghostbusters

Metroid

Boglins

Peter Gabriel

Gremlins

Just hordes of monsters in general

DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince

Cassettes

Being stoked about having a CD player and never having to deal with cassettes ever again

All of which did nothing to negate or even weaken my indignation when I became politically aware in the 90s and learned about how fucked up the 80s were, politically if not also culturally.

Like, for example, how we started to define our personal sense of cultural/generational identity primarily through contemporary media consumption.

how we started to define our personal sense of cultural/generational identity primarily through contemporary media consumption.

That goes back much earlier than the 1980s, it begins with the boomers, who had time and money like no generation before them and poured much of that time and money into consumerism as a way of creating an identity.

I found “Candy” (1968) on YouTube. It’s star-studded, written by Buck Henry, but the IMDB rating of 5.2 gives me pause. I sat through “The Magic Christian” (I’d give TMC a 6), “The Trip”, “Head” and “Skidoo!” but I’d like to know if “Candy” is worth watching.

That goes back much earlier than the 1980s, it begins with the boomers, who had time and money like no generation before them and poured much of that time and money into consumerism as a way of creating an identity.

You’ve messed up the timeline, the late 60’s and 70’s was when the boomers were in their self indulgent young adulthoods pursuing hedonism. The 80’s is when the Boomers got rich in their prime earning years and went all in on consuming and conservatism.

No, I haven’t. There is a reason why “teenager” became a consumer category that didn’t really exist prior to the 1950s. The economic power of the young boomers in the late 1950s and 1960s is not to be underestimated.

I wouldn’t say consumer is connected to either side politically, but functions as a public square, more often than not, with one’s dollars being used to make political statements.